Politics did not play role in bridge-closing plan

Sunday

Jun 15, 2008 at 12:01 AM

Let's be perfectly clear: Governor Rendell did not — and will not — exploit public safety issues for political benefit. Any suggestion to the contrary is untrue, unfair, and wholly unsupported by the facts.

ALAN D. BIEHLER

Let's be perfectly clear: Governor Rendell did not — and will not — exploit public safety issues for political benefit. Any suggestion to the contrary is untrue, unfair, and wholly unsupported by the facts.

These are the facts of the Greenview Drive bridge closure: a routine Pennsylvania Department of Transportation inspection performed in mid-April found nothing warranting immediate closure. But during an underwater inspection of the bridge supports on May 19, engineers discovered erosion that could undermine the supports. For several days, engineers in the Allentown District Office thoroughly assessed the data from both inspections.

Although it sometimes can take weeks to assess such data, this process was expedited because of the concerns raised by the underwater inspection. The decision to close the bridge was made on May 23, and PennDOT immediately launched the normal notification protocol that included calls to the school district and the Monroe County 911 center. These calls occur first so that emergency response teams know immediately about road closures that could affect the services they deliver. The protocol dictates that the 911 center must call all affected municipalities and other local services.

At the same time, PennDOT maintenance crews must transport and install the materials needed to block the bridge, as well as establish appropriate detour routes.

The bridge was closed at the earliest opportunity and political considerations played absolutely no role in the decision. To be clear, PennDOT engineers concluded that while the bridge was not in danger of imminent collapse, the problem was so serious that the bridge could not remain open until necessary repairs were made. What our engineers discovered constituted an emergency, and our top priority was to respond as quickly as possible and notify according to the emergency protocol.

The governor had no advance knowledge of the bridge closing. Weeks before, he had scheduled an education event in Mount Pocono on May 23. PennDOT alerted the Governor and his staff that morning to the bridge closing, and in the interest of disseminating news of the closure as quickly as possible with the advent of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, PennDOT issued a news advisory that the Governor was in the area and would be available to comment.

The governor has worked hard to educate the General Assembly, the media and the public about the serious transportation challenges we face in Pennsylvania and across the nation. The governor has nearly tripled investment in bridge contracts during his term and has proposed a Rebuild Pennsylvania initiative to float $200 million a year in bonds to accelerate work on 1,145 bridges over the next three years. This is well within the state's borrowing capacity and will allow Pennsylvania to get a jump on meeting these critical needs and beating the high construction cost inflation rate without increasing taxes or fees.

Pennsylvania's infrastructure crisis requires no "stunts" to attract attention, and your suggestion to the contrary was untrue and remarkably uninformed.

Other facts include:

The Greenview Drive bridge is a totally different design than the type of bridge that collapsed in Minnesota last August, but it has been on the structurally deficient list, which we posted on the PennDOT Web site in August.

The Tobyhanna Bridge collapsed after it was hit by a vehicle and had not been structurally deficient. There are dozens of closed bridges across the state and more than 6,000 structurally deficient bridges statewide. The transportation challenges are not confined to Monroe County.

On these issues of critical importance to Pennsylvania's future, the stakes are too high to settle for anything less than complete dedication to public safety.

Allen D. Biehler, P.E., is Pennsylvania's Transportation Secretary. He oversees a $5 billion budget that supports the fifth largest state-owned highway system in the nation, as well as aviation and rail transportation and grants for public transit systems. PennDOT also oversees driver licensing centers and 12 Welcome Centers.